


For Want of a Hat

by Indiana_J



Category: Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-13
Updated: 2011-05-13
Packaged: 2017-10-19 08:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/198718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indiana_J/pseuds/Indiana_J
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of the first meeting</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Want of a Hat

When one, who was generally not Watson, asked Holmes "Where on earth did you ever meet such a person as Ms. Adler?" he would, always, simply say: "She stole my hat!" in such a peeved tone of voice that the curious person would promptly decide on another course of topic.

*

When one asked Irene, "What was your first meeting with Mr. Holmes like?" she would, always, simply reply:  "I believe it could have gone better." and would leave it at that.

*

Had Irene not been in such a hurry, she would have wondered at the presence of the homeless man lounging on the rooftop that she was scrambling up.  As it was, she was far too busy attempting to not fall off or catch the attention of the men searching for her to pay him any sort of mind whatsoever.

Unluckily the man, seeing as he was not in the least bit preoccupied at the moment, was more than happy to pay some attention to her.

"You're trouble" he muttered.  Or maybe he said "You're  _in_  trouble".  It was very hard to hear over the galloping of her heart and the wind bustling about the rooftop. 

So, a little peeved as she hauled herself the rest of the way, Irene asked him - politely if a little out of breath - what he'd said exactly.  "Did you mean I'm trouble or that I'm in trouble?" she said, voice lower and rougher than her normal tones.  It wouldn't do to run around looking like a boy if one didn't sound like a boy.  Raised all sorts of questions that she'd never had the time or patience to answer.

The man peered at her from under his hat and promptly rattled off a half a dozen reasons why she was both.  Obviously, for a start, she was a girl (of all the -!) and the boys clothes she was sporting were stained and recently at that.  From, he continued as if they were having tea together in polite society instead of perching on a rooftop in London, the looks of the fresh mud and the recent tears in her pants, she was obviously running from someone.  Of course - he said with a shrug - the fact that she dressed up like a boy and was climbing rooftops like some wayward monkey meant that the someone was nearby.

After a moments pause, Irene responded with, "Well, I know something about you as well."

"Oh?  Prey tell."

"You, sir, are insufferable," she said, as primly as her old nanny used to sound when Irene had done something incredibly unforgiving (like taken tea in the nude when she was five).  With that, she reached forward, stole his hat clean off his head and threw herself right off the roof and onto the passing wagon down below.

*

"I rather liked that hat," Holmes would occasionally grumble to Watson.

"Which," Watson finished for him, "is why you told those very nice, official looking gentlemen which way she'd gone."

"Well.  It had been a very nice hat and I'd been oh so fond of it," Holmes responded with a sly grin.

*

"You were testing me," Irene said, only ever the once.  At the moment, she was behind bars but they both knew it would not be for long.  "All those years ago."

"Yes."

"Did I pass or fail?"

When no answer came, Irene wrapped her hands around the bars and leaned forward.  " _Sherlock_."

He hesitated in the shadows.  "We've both been failing ever since, haven't we, when it comes to one another?"


End file.
